Civil service aspirants will from this year onwards get a two-year age extension and two additional attempts beyond the existing stipulation, the government said today.

The Centre recently approved two additional attempts for all categories of candidates beginning with the Civil Services Examination, 2014, and okayed the consequential age relaxation across the board.

Under the existing rules, an unreserved or general category candidate is permitted a maximum of four attempts with the age limit for such candidates to take the examination being 30 years.

But from this year onwards, unreserved category candidates will get six attempts until 32 years of age, the Ministry of Personnel said in a statement today.

There is no restriction on the number of attempts by candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). But the age limit for such aspirants has now been extended by two years from 35 to 37 years, it said.

Till last year, the stipulation was for a total of seven attempts and an age limit of 33 years for aspirants belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). But as per the revised norms, an OBC candidate will now get nine attempts until 35 years of age.

Physically handicapped candidates in the general and OBC categories will now be eligible for nine attempts as against the seven at present. They will also get age relaxations of 42 years for general and 45 years for OBC candidates.

There is no cap on the number of attempts by physically handicapped candidates in the SC and ST categories while there will be an age limit of 47 years for them as against the present 45 years, the statement said.

The Civil Services Examination (Preliminary), 2014, is tentatively scheduled to be held on August 24 this year.

The examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS), among others.